Sarek travelled to the healing center and made his way to Sybok's room. The closer Sarek got, the harder it became to block Amanda's emotions from his mind. It was all he could do to block the worst of his own from her.

He knew that she knew he was there, however, so he took a deep breath and stepped into the room.

She was sitting on a chair facing Sybok's bed, and she looked up as Sarek entered, her eyes red from crying. She gave him a weak smile as he pulled over the other chair and sat beside the bed, close to Sybok, but facing her.

"I'm glad you're here," she whispered.

He didn't quite smile, but compassion showed in his eyes. He held out his two fingers to her, his wrist resting on his knee. She gave him that weak smile again, and touched her fingers to his.

The two-fingered touch was a very versatile gesture- it could be used as the equivalent of a Human couple holding hands, or as the beginning of a passionate kiss- or anywhere in between. It could communicate anything from powerful love to tranquility and support. The touch, tiny by Human standards, was to married Vulcan couples a bridge between their minds that strengthened the connection of their bond, and it would affect them according to the thoughts and emotions that travelled across it.

Tonight, neither had the strength to keep their sorrow, worry, frustration, and fear from flowing. Amanda wiped a tear from Sarek's cheek with her other hand. Their mental unity and love took the edge off their pain. She looked back at Sybok, and sighed. She shook her head. No matter how many times she corrected herself, she still thought that her handsome, brilliant teenage son looked like he was simply asleep. She wished she could just take a hypospray and wake him up, like the first time she'd ever seen him…

Suddenly the two of them were back on Earth, in the living quarters the Federation had provided Sarek, thirteen years before, observing with one mind their common memory. They stood watching their younger selves, who stood together by the side of the bed in the guest room, staring down at the three-year-old Sybok. Sarek was very good in a crisis, even an emotional one. He was quite experienced at not only putting his own emotions aside, but at supporting Humans and others at doing so. This, however, had sent his head spinning, paralyzing him.

The younger Amanda knew him well enough to guess some of the things that were going through his mind, and considered his reaction quite understandable. Sarek had learned of his son's existence approximately 20 minutes before. Now the child was here, still sedated from his long journey, but ready to be woken.

Sarek had received a message at work from Vulcan telling him that T'Rea, his first bond-mate, had died, and had left instructions for her son, Sybok, to be placed under the responsibility of his father. Therefore, the young boy had been brought to Earth, and it was requested that Sarek return to his quarters immediately to receive him.

Sarek and Amanda were dating seriously at the time, and it was normal for them to be together at either of their houses in the evenings. When Sarek received the message, her first thought was of course to let him have his privacy. It had surprised them both when she offered to come with him. It had surprised them both even more when he accepted. All kinds of issues and questions were flying through young Sarek's mind, none of them waiting for logical analysis. Why had T'Rea never told him? How was he supposed to raise a child? Was he capable of being an effective father? What would the child be like? What if the boy didn't want to be here? What if he couldn't build a mutual trust and respect with the child? He had already missed three years of his son's life. He had a son. He had a son. What did he know about little children? What would happen to the child while he was at work? He had no wife to help raise the child. How could he be a single father? Especially as a Vulcan, where it was so uncommon. Amanda. Amanda. Would she still want to be with him if he had a child from a previous relationship? He was already significantly older than her by Human standards. This would only make the difference more obvious. What if she ended their relationship?

Hearing these thoughts from her husband's memory through their bond, the older Amanda smiled at the older Sarek, humoured.

"I still can't believe that you ever thought Sybok would drive me away from you," she said.

"I underestimated you, my wife," he replied. "It was not logical that you could feel for me the way you did."

"Of course it was illogical. Love has never been logical, among your people or mine," she replied, just as the younger her from the memory started to speak.

"I can't believe that they didn't give you any notice!" she exclaimed. "On a transport like that, it would have taken almost a week just to get him here from Vulcan. You'd think they could have warned you at least a day or two in advance."

"You must believe it," the younger Sarek replied blankly. "He is here."

"That's not what I meant."

"The priests of Gol are entirely dedicated to the use of pure logic. In the process, many factors based whatsoever on emotion become irrelevant to them."

Amanda thought for a moment. "Okay, I guess that makes sense. She paused again, examining the child. She could already see Sarek in his features. That handsome face, framed by wisps of dark hair, the high cheekbones, just showing through his baby fat. The elegant, tiny pointed ears.

She took a breath and said, "Well, are you ready to wake him up and meet him?"

Sarek took a deep breath, too, forcing his mind to clear and his emotions to subside. He reached for the hypospray that Amanda held out to him, the one the priests had left. There was a soft hiss as the stimulant diffused through the skin, and Sybok's eyes fluttered open. He looked up at Sarek and Amanda with wide eyes, but a straight face. After a few seconds, he sat up on the bed.

His eyes focused on Amanda's face, and he stared at her. She turned her head to look at Sarek, and he caught sight of her rounded ears. His eyes grew even wider.

"Greetings, Sybok," Sarek finally said, holding up his hand in a ta'al. He felt so awkward. He was well-acquainted with the social and cultural rules for hundreds of situations in Vulcan culture, Human culture, and situations with a variety of combinations of cultures. He was an experienced Federation ambassador. And yet he had no idea how one was supposed to greet his own son when meeting him for the first time at three years old.

The tiny fingers parted in the ta'al, and the similarly tiny voice spoke, "You are Sarek, my father?"

The question, with its mature wording and tone, sounded very strange to Amanda, coming from such a small child. But she had never met a Vulcan child quite so young. Could this be normal?

Older Amanda, both from her husband's thoughts and her own later experience, knew that it wasn't.

"I am," replied Sarek.

"My mother has died, so I have been sent to live with you."

Sarek was taken aback. He hadn't had any idea what to expect, but this had definitely not been it.

"I was informed."

Sybok nodded.

Amanda spoke up. "I am Amanda. It is nice to meet you, Sybok."

Sybok looked up at her.

"What are you?"

"I'm Human," she replied, kneeling down next to the bed so he could see her better. He slid to sit on the edge of the bed. Amanda turned her head so he could get a better look at her ears. He stared, fascinated.

Sarek watched the two of them, almost as fascinated as Sybok. Of course Amanda would be good with children- she had only recently left her career of teaching them. But there was still something about how comfortable she was…

There was also something odd about Sybok that he was having difficulty naming. He finally figured it out. Vulcan children were not born with control over their emotions. On the contrary, their intense Vulcan emotions made them telepathically very 'noisy' for the first few years of their lives. As an only child in his own family, Sarek had no direct experience, but he was sure that this child was too young to be expected not to project his emotions. And he was too old to have too little understanding for this to be an unemotional situation.

"Are you hungry, Sybok?" Amanda asked. "We could go to the kitchen and get you something to eat." The little boy nodded. He carefully climbed down from the adult-sized bed, which was luckily not too high off the floor. He was apparently not quite recovered from his sedation, though, because he took a couple of unsteady steps and fell to the floor, falling on his face.

"Oh, Sybok!" cried Amanda.

He quickly pushed himself up without complaining, and got to his feet, holding onto the bed. His lips barely tightened. Amanda was having a harder and harder time believing that this was normal. What had happened to this child that he couldn't even react when he fell? He was three years old- even by Vulcan standards, only just past toddlerhood! Had someone abused Sarek's son? She paused to calm herself. There was no need to jump to conclusions. These were among the most honoured people in Vulcan society she was thinking about.

"I'm sorry. That medicine they gave you must still be wearing off," she told Sybok.

"Is it okay if I carry you?"

He looked surprised, but nodded. Amanda picked him up, holding him to her chest. He stiffened for a moment, and she loosened her grip. But then he relaxed, and suddenly threw his arms around her neck. She started walking to the kitchen, delighted, Sarek following just behind her. It had been a while since her nephew Tyler had been willing to sit still long enough to cuddle with her like this. She was just considering the irony of her boyfriend's Vulcan son, whom she had just met, being more cuddly with her than her own Human nephew, whom she had known all of his life, when she had a sudden relaxed feeling wash over her. Where was that coming from? She stopped walking as she felt… what was that? A… presence in her mind? Then she wasn't just remembering Tyler running around playing, she was seeing it again. With a flash of insight, she figured it out. She thrust Sybok into Sarek's arms, more forcefully than she meant to, and immediately felt bad. Sarek was surprised but took him. Sybok looked startled and a little saddened.

"What is wrong, Amanda?" he asked. Amanda took a deep breath and said, "Sarek, I think your son just tried to mind meld with me."

The older Amanda and Sarek together felt a twinge of sadness, recalling what they had since come to understand. What Amanda had felt that day had not been a true mind meld. Sybok naturally had a particularly large measure of the Vulcan telepathic ability, which would not have been especially significant on its own. However, he had been raised up until that time in a community of Vulcan priests and priestesses, who had sought and achieved a complete purging of all remaining emotion. He had learned to an extent to imitate those around him, and had been blocked out by their especially strong mental blocks. He had not been taught functional mental discipline for life outside the temple, and instead honed his abilities as he strove to pick up any tiny vestigial traces of emotion he could find, in order to fill the emotional needs of his developing mind.

Then, suddenly, he had come into close physical contact with Amanda, a young Human woman with very limited mental barriers, who already was exuding love for him. It would turn out to be a very drastic and often difficult change for Sybok. It also turned out to be the reason he grew so quickly into a not only functioning, but gifted youth in Vulcan society.

That love Amanda had felt so quickly for Sybok turned out to change all of their lives in another way, too.